Religion Dispatches
…k titled The Change Manifesto which according to the Institute’s Faith and Freedom Newsletter, “reminds us” that despite talk by the “presidential candidates … about reducing taxes, lowering gas prices and reforming Social Security…. none of that will matter unless we first restore the rule of law and abide by the Constitution.” “We are on the cusp of a new era of progress, but we can’t sit back and hope our elected officials will carry us there….
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…s and resulting euphoria might result in a sense of physical and emotional freedom. What could be better? Hell, they might make it as far as throwing off their yoke and joining the ranks of the liberated. Swimming is probably the best form of cardiovascular exercise for almost everyone, including individuals with depression, obesity, arthritis, diabetes, and various age-related ailments. Unlike jogging, it does not cause strain to your joints. Wat…
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…ndated that “In God We Trust” appear on U.S. currency. Neither required by free exercise, nor prohibited by establishment In the suit brought by the Freedom from Religion Foundation and several of its leaders, Judge Crabb ruled that the housing allowance exemption violates the First Amendment’s prohibition against the establishment of religion. Crabb had reached an identical conclusion at an earlier stage of the litigation, in 2013, but she was ov…
Read More…he production cost of whatever they make. Often what is framed as a choice between the free market and socialism is neither. Net Neutrality prohibits ISPs from charging for internet service based on usage. This seems straightforward to Barton and Green: “what they mean is we’re not going to let you choose who you need to charge more to.” But it’s not that simple. First, the internet service providers (ISPs) don’t “own” the internet. They own the m…
Read More…nial past and our colonial governance by the Roman Catholic Church. We are free at last to live and love as we were born to be. For freedom –– not happiness –– is the precious stone. One cannot cling to happiness; it submits to no clinging. To be free, to live and love in your homeland, this is the most precious stone against which all others fade by comparison. We now know that, whatever organised religion may say, our way of loving is right. No…
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…ative attempts to remedy Smith’s damage may actually leave some plaintiffs better able to defend their free-exercise rights than before. And other rulings on both free-exercise and non-establishment cases—such as in employment cases involving churches and cases involving government-sanctioned prayer—have maintained a distinctiveness for religion as a constitutional category. But other learned First Amendment scholars—such as Marci Hamilton of Yesh…
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…ve been ignorant of and alienated from the main currents in American life. Bethany Moreton’s pathbreaking study, To Serve God and Wal-Mart: The Making of Christian Free Enterprise is an invaluable asset for apprehending how we got here. Her new book chronicles Wal-Mart’s role in mainstreaming evangelical and free market values even as it became the world’s largest public corporation and the nation’s biggest private employer. A critical appraisal o…
Read More…is the governmental kind. But that’s an entirely different animal. Ditto “free speech.” Constitutionally protected free speech concerns, once again, the government, not the right to express any view without consequence. And no one (and certainly no government entity) stopped del Toro from making his film, distributing it to theaters, and eventually licensing it to Netflix. Quite the opposite, in fact. Once audiences were able to see the film for…
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…ing that earns her money. Because it’s the only talent she has. This isn’t free speech, it’s free-market. And to what end? If you link anti-Semitism to Islamophobia, or vice versa, you make it more likely each community will deny the other’s pain. Young Muslims who are expected to accept that anti-Semitism is real, at the cost of denying discrimination against them, are unlikely to. This is not only the biggest Jewish city in the world, but the bi…
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…example, some of the achievements of our last “liberal” administration: a “free trade” pact deeply opposed by working people; the partial privatization of welfare; and the passage of a “religious freedom” act that allows conservative evangelicals to influence foreign policy according to their analysis of other faiths’ religious customs. Each of these projects had been long dreamed of by the avant-garde of American fundamentalism. That’s not to say…
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